I work in main stream school with an autistic boy age 4 who has an obsession with trains.
An incident occured with another teaching assistant where she refused to give him his train to hold, as she wanted him to get his lunch box. he got extremely upset screaming,kicking and punching,( normal behaviour when he can't cope with something) I asked her to give him the train and then ask him to get his lunchbox. He took the train and then went and got his lunchbox.
She feels that he has behaviour problems, I see it differently, I see a boy who is having difficulty coping at this particular time as he is severly autistic and needed to hold his train to help him cope.
Do I need to change the way I think and make sure that he does what he is asked to do even if I know it is causing him extreme distress at times and can be avoided or is it a behaviour issue and I am making it worse.
